Devyani Khobragade case: No regret, but conciliatory US promises to review procedures

The US took the first steps to contain and repair the damage caused by the arrest of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade that has agitated India.

| TNN | Updated: Dec 18, 2013, 21:58 IST

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WASHINGTON: Hours after an unrepentant state department spokeswoman Marie Hurf insisted that “standard procedures” were used in the arrest of Devyani Khobragade, the US on Tuesday took the first steps to contain and repair the damage caused by the episode by announcing that it was looking at its internal procedures to see if appropriate steps were followed.
“We understand that this is a very sensitive issue for many in India and accordingly we are looking at our own intake procedures surrounding the arrest to ensure all appropriate procedures were followed and every opportunity for courtesies was extended,” US assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai-Biswal told TOI in an interview that contained no regret, but was conciliatory in tone.

Asked if the Khobragade issue could not have been resolved in any other way outside an arrest, Desai-Biswal made a significant disclosure that could change the contours of the debate. She said the US state department had alerted — in writing — the Indian embassy as early as September this year that there were allegations against the diplomat concerning underpayment of minimum wages and non-compliance, and that action could be imminent under US laws. Incident an isolated episode: US official Washington: US assistant secretary of state Nisha Desai-Biswal struck a conciliatory note on Tuesday, telling TOI, “While this is a law enforcement issue that needs to be worked through standard law enforcement channels, we will work India, with colleagues in the ministry of external affairs, in the spirit of partnership and cooperation that marks the broader bilateral relations while working through their concerns and questions and making sure that we are able to move forward,” she added.

US pointperson for India and the broader South Central Asia region, Desai-Biswal maintained that the United States and India enjoy a very broad and deep friendship and “this incident is an isolated episode that is not indicative of the close and mutually respectful partnership between the two,” as she sought to contain the fall-out from the episode that has soured ties between the two countries.

Asked if she and her colleagues were aware that detention of the diplomat was imminent while they was engaged in talks with India’s foreign secretary Sujatha Singh, Desai-Biswal said the state department was not the only agency involved, although the Bureau of Diplomatic Security at Foggy Bottom did sign off on the arrest. She referred questions about the reported treatment after the arrest to US marshals who took over once the arrest had been made.

“So far, all indications are appropriate procedures were followed but we understand there are sensitivities involved However, we are continuing to review what exactly happened … we are having conversations with other agencies involved,'' Desai-Biswal said, suggesting that the matter was far from closed and some announcement would follow once the review was complete.

More than once, the newly-confirmed pointperson for South Central Asia, the first of Indian-origin to occupy the post, emphasized the larger picture of thriving ties between the two countries.

“As difficult and sensitive as the situation is, there is a larger agenda to work towards common goals and shared interests. We must not lose sight of where we have to go with this relationship,'' she said. At the same time, she said, the US would insist on compliance with its local laws about minimum wages and treatment of domestic workers, ''something we feel strongly about and something we are willing to work with our partners about.''

The official, who is scheduled make her maiden visit to India as assistant secretary early next year, possibly in January around the time energy secretary Ernest Moniz is also slated to visit New Delhi, said she still hopes to go India as early as possible.

“I am committed to advancing the relation and engaging our counterparts in India,'' she said.

Just a few hours earlier, Marie Harf had asserted in a matter-of-fact way, “The state department’s diplomatic security followed standard procedures during the arrest. After her arrest, she was passed on to the US marshals for intake and processing. So for any additional questions on her treatment, I would refer you there,” The justice department has not commented on the arrest and subsequent developments aside from the initial statement accompanying the sealed complaint.

Implicit in Harf’s response was the disclosure that the arrest had the consent of the state department, whose Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s New York office provided the personnel for the initial detaining of Khobragade before she was handed over to the marshals.

Indian officials had fumed that state department officials did not let them know of the impending arrest even as the two sides were engaged in what was described as very warm and fruitful talks between India’s foreign secretary Sujatha Singh and her US counterparts.

In fact, Indian officials had bragged about how the US team came to the state department for talks despite a snow shutdown the day before the arrest and how secretary of state John Kerry broke protocol to drop by at the talks his deputies were holding with Singh and her team. But while the two sides projected the impression that all was peaches and cream, across the building, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security was given the go-ahead to detain the Indian diplomat, either unknowingly or unmindful of the tumult it would cause.

While the state department sought to absolve itself of the responsibility for her treatment, it transpires that that the deposition in the sealed complaint by the US attorney’s office came from a special agent of the state department’s Diplomatic Security Service, identified as Mark Smith. From the justice department’s US attorney’s office, the case was investigated primarily by the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit. The office’s organized crime unit is handling the case, with US attorney of New York Southern District Preet Bharara’s assistant attorneys Amanda Kramer and Kristy Greenberg in charge of the prosecution.

Indian officials came to know of the arrest only when they were going in for a wrap-up review of the talks on Friday morning a day after foreign secretary Singh had left for New Delhi. Lower level US officials who received them were said to be equally embarrassed about the episode, and suggested that it was beyond their purview or powers to do anything about the incident.

Asked if diplomats are supposed to be treated differently from other alleged criminals, spokesperson Harf said “it’s a totally fair question” but insisted that ‘our diplomatic security folks followed our standard procedures, which I’m assuming are standard for diplomats because that’s who our diplomatic security deals with. I can’t speak for the US marshals, obviously. That’s for them to speak to”.

She also rejected the idea that Khobragade should have had diplomatic immunity, explaining that under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Indian deputy consul general enjoys immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts “only with respect to acts performed in the exercise of consular functions”.

Harf maintained, “So in this case, she fell under that specific kind of immunity, and would be liable to arrest pending trial pursuant a felony arrest warrant”.

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